FEATURE: Capital Mashup – Mario Bourgeois, Cassel Brewery Co.

Mike Lackey (left), brewer at Great Lakes Brewery and Mario Bourgeois (right), brewer at Cassel Brewery getting their photo taken with a beer fan (middle).

To get a better idea of what the brewers have been collaborating on we interviewed the Ottawa breweries involved in The Brewery Market // Capital Mashup. Check back during the week of June 30 – July 6 for a preview of what's going down July 7 in Parkdale Park.

Our fist interview is with Mario Bourgeois, head brewer at Cassel Brewery Company in Casselman, Ontario (40 minutes outside Ottawa). In their first year they've produced 7 brews including their flagship Golden Rails Honey Brown and Railroad Special seasonal, Maple Rye. Recently the nanobrewery won a $55,000 grant from Prescott-Russell Community Development Corporation (PRCDC) through the Eastern Ontario Development Program to help expand their business. For the Capital Mashup, Mario was teamed up with Mike Lackey, brewer at Great Lakes Brewery.

Ottawa Beer Events (OBE): Can you tell us about the collaboration beer?

Mario Bourgeois (MB): We did a Cranberry Saison, 30gal of it on a pilot system.

Did you get to pick how you collaborated with? How did you get paired up with Great Lakes Brewery?

No, Great Lakes Brewery (GLB) was offered to us, being a big fan of the 666 IPA I didn't hesitate a second!

How did you like brewing in their facility?

Was a very fun and pleasant experience to create a beer with another brew master; share stories, experiences and, of course, a few laughs! Mike Lackey is from a similar background as me – we learned brewing on the fly. I was also inspired by the amount of pilot batches Mike is doing, I will start to do the same to have a few more recipes in the pipeline.

Were there any challenges? Did anything throw you for a loop?

The only challenge was what to do! Mike has saison in his mind which I had never brewed myself, and then we went over the spices and adjunct supplies that we had (a lot of it!) and decided to go cranberry. It was a mutual decision. As for brewing it, besides being a system I never brewed on, we both know how to make beer 😉

The Ottawa Brewery Market // Capital Mashup will be held on July 7, 2013 at Parkdale Park (12pm – 8pm). Admission is free and families/pets are welcome. The event will be held rain or shine – prepare yourself for the Ottawa weather.

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Brews+Books - Book sale/swapSeptember 15, 2019 at 11:00 am – 3:00 pmKichesippi BeerCome out from 11am to 3pm and swap a book, sell a book or donate a book. If you've got a bunch of books you'd like to sell contact Mike@kbeer.ca for table space. All proceeds will go to FLOPA (https://www.fopla-aabpo.ca/). https://www.facebook.com/events/2369058223420720/

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Orléans Oktoberfest 2019September 21, 2019 at 11:00 am – 11:59 pmOrléans Brewing Co. - OBCJoin us for our 1st annual Orléans Oktoberfest party on September 21st! We’ll have 4 other breweries pouring and over 20 beers on tap–including our signature Oktoberfest beer which is included with your entrance to the par-tay! Our kitchen will be serving special Bavarian inspired foods that you won’t want to miss. * Beer Garden…